Congressional Change
|
Pre-Modern Congress |
Modern-Congress |
| High Turnover of Membership | Low Turnover of Membership |
| Many Contested Elections | Few Contested Elections |
| Short Sessions, relatively light workload | Long sessions, heavy workload |
| Chaotic Floor Proceeding | Orderly Floor Proceedings |
| High turnover of committee personnel; shifting criteria for assignment | Low turnover of committee personnel; stable criteria for assignment |
| Numerous criteria for appointment of committee chairs | Seniority is one of the dominant criterion for appointment of committee chairs along with party loyalty, personal reputation |
| Undeveloped party structures | Well-developed political party structures within the institution and in campaign organizations |
| Few Perks and low salary | (1) High Salary and many perks; (2) travel junkets; (3) expansive medical care; (4) special retirement program (retirement with up to 80% of current full salary); (5) generous office expense and travel allowance; (6) life insurance; (7) free parking; (8) numerous in-house "freebies" |
| Low cost, low tech campaigns | Very high cost and high tech campaigns |